


Never Change

by auralikh



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 21:05:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19181362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auralikh/pseuds/auralikh
Summary: When Judar first saw Hakuryuu fall, he wished Hakuryuu would stay like that forever.





	Never Change

“Judar, you’re late.”

He’s here at the time that he would always come in. Not that it matters. He sits down on the edge of Hakuryuu’s bed.

“Who cares if I’m late? It’s not like you can do much right now anyway.” Judar presses his hand on Hakuryuu’s chest to stop him when the other tries to get up, “...You’re injured, sit your ass back down.”

“...How long was I out?”

Too long. “About four days.” That’s what the answer is supposed to be. Judar can’t be bothered to count the actual number of days.

“Four days?” Hakuryuu’s eyes widen but they look more tired than they should be, considering how alarmed he is, “That’s- what about the palace? Has everything been secured, what of-”

“Those old farts figured it out,” Judar tries to make it not seem like he’s reciting lines that have been drilled into his brain and stretches his arms a little, frowning when they crack too soon. “Everything’s stable, it should be pretty obvious considering that you’re allowed to rest in your room. Otherwise someone would have tried to kill you in your sleep. Not that I would allow that to happen, though.”

“Still…” He looks so distressed, it makes Judar wish he could tell Hakuryuu the truth, the bittersweet ending that brought them where they are, but if Hakuryuu knew everything it might just give him a heart attack. 

“Still… if you try to do business in this state you’re just going to bleed all over the court. Not very kingly, if you ask me,” Judar sighs, “I don’t like it when you’re a sitting duck too but what can you do?”

“I see…” He isn’t fully accepting of this, it’s written all over his brow, but he looks down at the sheets covering him. “Then you shouldn’t waste your time here. We don’t know when Kouen will make a move, so you should practice. Were you able to increase the maximum mass you can transport with transfer circles?”

“A bit.” It’ll never end up being enough for the battle, but again, none of that matters. “I practiced plenty enough, since there wasn’t much else to do here without you around. Do you want me away that badly? I’ve been waiting forever for you to wake up,” The last statement stings his throat. Forever doesn’t mean anything, “I’ll take hanging with you even if your fever makes you delirious over the old farts or any of those brainwashed soldiers.”

Hakuryuu stares at him. “If you’re sure about this.” He blinks and rubs his left eye, “...I think my vision worsened.”

“If it gets bad enough, we could stick an eyepatch on you.”

“What, no that’d just look ridiculous!”

“Yeah, you’d match those senile generals, it’ll look like I’ll need to add a dumb eyepatch on myself too.”

The banter goes on like normal. A gradual look of concern and emptiness looms over Hakuryuu’s face like normal. Judar leaves him alone to think about Gyokuen’s death and the inevitable war like normal. Everything works out like normal. Like clockwork. Judar’s sick of routines but he forces himself to bear through this one again and again, only because of Hakuryuu. His king, walking right towards death without knowing it.

The ex-magi doesn’t take off the illusion spell until after he goes back to his own room. The full length mirror he used to spend so much time looking at is covered with a shawl. Age sucks. It makes him look too tired, like some ghost haunting the youthful appearance he knows he really is on the inside. If he had nigh-infinite magoi like he used to, he’d just keep the spell up all the time, make himself look immortal. That’s certainly how he felt then.

Judar sits down on the bed and stares out the window. Did Hakuryuu already forget what just happened? The healers said that he’ll forget anything new in approximately a span of a day. But they don’t know a lot of things. Things like how to heal him if he can’t make any new fucking memories, why the memories suddenly stopped at 18, at a moment when everything was in flux and no one could have predicted what would happen, at a moment when he felt so empty, the low before the peak of choosing to aim his blade at Kouen next. Kouen already rotted on his own accord. That was what, seven years ago? Time’s flying by too fast for Judar to count or care.

But time’s not flying for Hakuryuu. It’s still. Every day is going to be the same and he doesn’t even know it. He’s always going to be Judar’s angry king, with the pitch black determination to move forward, even if “forward” means going in a circle. Judar still remembers the look in Hakuryuu’s eyes right after he’d fallen. He’d wish that this Hakuryuu would never change.

It’s too ironic how wishes can come true. He should have wished for that some later time. After they’d gotten together, maybe right when they’re supposed to reunite so he could make fun of Hakuryuu’s trying-not-to-cry face. Maybe the day afterwards, when they were too eager to talk about too many things, touch in too many ways. 

Thinking about it is useless. Judar decides to go to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> For people that don't know there's actually two types of amnesia - retrograde (the kind most people think of where someone forgets their past) and anterograde (the kind where new memories cannot be formed). Figured it'd be interesting to write one of the anterograde variant to mess with the Amnesia trope


End file.
